Yeochun NCC to expand ethylene production capacity

(plastemart) -- South Korea's leading ethylene maker Yeochun NCC Co. is mull augmenting capacity by 350,000 tons at its No. 2 naphtha cracker. With this, total capacity will rise to 920,000 tpa in 2012.

MRC

(European Plastics) -- German automotive components group ContiTech Fluid Technology is now producing blow moulded plastic charge air ducts in-house at its plant at Waltershausen, in the German state of Thuringia.

"This allows us to boost our share of the value added chain and combine our market leadership in elastomer charge air hoses with a forward-looking technology that has a considerable edge over metal in terms of weight and cost," said ContiTech Fluid Technology general manager, Gunter Frolich.

Frolich said that having its own production capability would also enable it to provide an improved product development service to its automotive OEM customers.

MRC

MOSCOW (SIBUR) -- SIBUR and a group of lenders, whose interests are represented by A1 (investment division of "Alfa-Group"), reached agreements on the further development of "Amtel" tire holding.

The group of lenders represented by A1 shall assign its rights of demand with regard to "Amtel" Group's companies to SIBUR. SIBUR shall become the principal lender of the "Amtel" Group and such capacity start to participate more actively in optimization of financial and economic position of "Amtel" companies.

As the parties believe, these agreements perfectly meet the objectives of "Amtel" lenders, who want to prevent from division of the companies' property complex and to active growth of the Group. The deal is to be closed before the end of June 2010.

MRC

MRC Reference

Sibur Holding is the largest Russian petrochemical group.

Shareholders:
Gazprombank (70% minus 1 share);
Gazfond (25% plus 1 share);
5% reserved for option program.

(WallStreet Jurnal) -- Despite the sometimes-rancorous bankruptcy case of chemical giant LyondellBasell, Andreas Heeschen, whose ProChemie Holding took a 50% stake in the company during its restructuring, has only good things to say about the U.S. bankruptcy system.

⌠To go in and save such an internationally diversified company, it's impressive, he said in a meeting Wednesday at Dow Jones's offices in Manhattan. ⌠That the management team and the creditor groups could interact in such a way┘it's thanks to the bankruptcy system in this country.

Heeschen had his last day on the company's board on Wednesday, when new investors took over at LyondellBasell, which emerged from bankruptcy in late April. The company, which operates 59 manufacturing facilities in 18 countries, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2009. Its bankruptcy plan cuts the company's funded debt to about $5 billion from $24 billion.

MRCMRC Reference

LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.

The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

injection molding.

MOSCOW (SIBUR) -- According to the consolidated financial results for 2009, JSC SIBUR Holding revenues fell year-on-year by 7% down to 161.4 billion rubles with an EBITDA decrease by 21.9% to 31.8 billion rubles. However, net profit increased by 20.6% and reached 19.3 billion rubles.

The main factor behind the decrease in revenues and EBITDA was the fall in the demand for petrochemical products and the narrowing of the price range both in domestic and foreign markets. Net profit grew due to the sale of non-core assets (the methanol business), the decrease in spending on the profit tax and the use of financial insurance instruments based on changes in exchange rates.

Investments in production expansion and modernization totaled 27.6 billion rubles in 2009 (33.6 billion rubles in 2008).

In spite of the economic crisis, the company managed to implement such major projects as putting into operation the second phase of the Yuzhno-Balyksky gas processing plant, wastewater treatment facilities at the Voronezhsintezkauchuk plant and installations for the production of geosynthetic materials, as well as the upgrading of the ABS/PC composites production at the Plastik plant. Moreover, the company launched production of new types of rubber at the Voronezhsintezkauchuk plant and the Krasnoyarsk synthetic rubber plant. A new cable plasticate production line was launched at the Kaprolaktam plant in the Nizhni Novgorod region. The company continued to finance the construction of the largest plants in this country to produce polypropylene in Tobolsk and PVC in the Nizhni Novgorod region.

As of the end of 2009, the net debt to EBITDA ratio was 1.36 matching the international average for the sector. This leaves the possibility to add to the debt burden for the implementation of the investment program.

In 2009, JSC SIBUR Holding's main shareholder Gazprom with the purpose of financing the development of the company contributed to the authorized capital of SIBUR Holding 9 billion rubles through the additional issue of shares. Registration of the issue of 3,469,545 shares with the face value of 1,000 rubles a share was completed in January 2010.

Last year, the company made some changes in the composition of its assets. Among noteworthy events should be mentioned the acquisition of the international petrochemical trader CITCO and a 50-percent stake in Biaksplen Ltd. Russia's largest manufacturer of BOPP film.

MRCMRC Reference

Sibur Holding is the largest Russian petrochemical group.

Shareholders:
Gazprombank (70% minus 1 share);
Gazfond (25% plus 1 share);
5% reserved for option program.